


Any Kind of Life

by jeni_andtheafterthought



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Body Horror, Creature Fic, Dark Magic, Demon Harry Potter, Demons, M/M, Mildly Dubious Consent, Necromancy, Obsession, Other: See Story Notes, Shapeshifting, Soul Bond, Temporary Character Death, mutual obsession
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-15
Updated: 2019-02-15
Packaged: 2019-10-29 05:00:28
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,726
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17801489
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jeni_andtheafterthought/pseuds/jeni_andtheafterthought
Summary: Despite being caught on opposite sides of a war, Harry and Draco find love. They promise to come back to each other once the war is over. However, no one is unchanged by war, and there are some things you can't come back from. Draco was told to let Harry go, to leave his love behind and move on. He is told that Harry has changed. Draco doesn't care how different Harry has become. A promise is a promise.





	Any Kind of Life

**Author's Note:**

> Temporary character death is compliant with canon, ex: Harry's death and the following King's Cross scene. Dubious consent refers to the soul bond and conditions of the bond. A bird is killed 'on screen' in this fic. (I'm going to stop sounding professional for a second because there is no way to say this professionally, there's some shape-shifting monster sex with biting, aphrodisiac venom, and blood, and a barbed snake-demon dick.) And yes, if you think you see a Mulaney reference, it's intentional. 
> 
> Thank you to hermione18802 for beta reading this fic!

_July 2000_

“Stay away from me, Malfoy,” Harry hissed through gritted teeth.

Draco reached out for him. He expected Harry to pull away or, at most, raise his voice at him. Harry swatted Draco’s hand away, and shoved his hand into Draco’s chest hard enough to send the blond stumbling backward.

“I don’t know what you expected, but that’s gone,” Harry said, straightening his stance. “Whatever it is you were hoping for, it’s never going to happen. Forget me, Malfoy. Forget my face, forget my name, forget every promise, everything you said before. We’re done and you owe me nothing. Those promises are gone. We owe each other nothing.”

“I don’t agree to that. I refuse. You told me that when it was all over—”

“I said stay away!” Harry shouted when Draco moved toward him.

The back alley had been deserted but for the two of them. Draco glanced around to make sure they were still alone. “Harry, I have been looking for you. Everyday, I looked for you for two fucking years. I think I’ve earned a single conversation.”

“Did you ever think that maybe I didn’t want to be found?” Harry asked. “I don’t even know why I’m here now.”

Draco took a slow step forward, not wanting Harry to run. “But you _are_ here now.”

“And so are you,” Harry said, brow furrowing, “how did you... how did you find me? You know what? It doesn’t matter. I have to go.”

Draco watched Harry turn to walk away. Panic took hold of him. He raced forward, grabbing Harry’s arm. Harry’s warm skin under his fingers, against his palm, filled Draco with relief.

“Harry James Potter.”

Harry stumbled. His eyes locked onto Draco’s hand. “WHAT DID YOU DO!?”

“Don’t leave,” Draco whispered.

“So fucking stupid,” Harry muttered. He wrenched his arm from Draco’s grip and ran out onto the main street.

He felt all the warmth in the world leave with Harry.

Draco didn’t know how long he’d been standing there when he heard the harsh staccato of high heeled shoes.

It was _her_.

She placed a dainty hand on his shoulder. “Don’t worry, sweet one. He will be back. He has no choice now.”

* * *

 

_May 1998_

“I can’t just sit here, I have to go find him. Something could be wrong. He promised he would come back when the war was over,” Draco said.

“My darling boy, it isn’t that simple. Maybe it isn’t over for him,” Narcissa said, blocking the door with a subtle movement.

Draco looked at her, waiting for her to elaborate.

“Please, Draco. Won’t you come eat something? I haven’t seen you in days. I worry about you.”

“Mother, I’m fine.” Again, he watched her. The calm expression never wavered.

“What aren’t you telling me?”

“Please,” she said, reaching out for him to take her hand.

He looked down at her outstretched fingers. When had her hands started looking so old? He looked back up at her face, really looked. There was genuine worry hidden in the lines and creases surrounding her eyes and mouth. This wasn’t a mother wanting her son to eat a sandwich. It was something else.

“Mother. What aren’t you telling me?” He hated that he couldn’t sound more demanding, but it was still his mother he was talking to.

“You should let him go.”

Draco tried to step around her, but she shifted with him. “You know I’m not going to do that. I’m going to find Harry. He should have come to me by now. Something has to be wrong.”

“Yes. There is.”

Dread wormed its way into Draco’s chest and tightened around his heart. “What’s wrong? You know something, don’t you.”

“Please don’t make me say it.” Narcissa took her son’s hands into her own. “Sometimes, you just have to believe that not knowing is better than the alternatives. Trust me. You need to let him go. Cherish the love that you had; keep it safe in your heart and let him go.”

Draco’s breath was coming too quickly, waves of nausea crashed over him. “Tell me.”

The silence was a cruel stab in the chest.

“I’m leaving now, Mother,” Draco said. He didn’t so much pull her as he gently guided her from the spot she stood in the doorway. “What you say before I do decides whether I come back or not.”

Narcissa’s grip on Draco’s hands tightened. “You don’t trust your mother to spare you from harm?”

“I’m going after Harry,” he said. He turned from her, but she refused to let go.

“He’s dead.”

Draco shook his head. “That’s not...that can’t be true. I saw him. Everyone saw him. He wasn’t dead. Voldemort only thought he was dead.”

“That wasn’t Harry.”

“What are you saying?” he whispered. He wasn’t sure if anything would have prepared him for this.

“Harry Potter died. Voldemort killed him when he came into the Forbidden Forest. I watched him die. I saw the curse, saw it hit him. I saw him fall down. I felt a lifeless body on the—” Narcissa choked on her words before. A sob raked through her before she could continue. “His body was on the ground, and then I felt it. Something. I felt something. Something came back, but whatever it was, it wasn’t Harry. Whatever is living in his skin, wearing his face, that isn’t him. Harry is dead. Something dark came back to take his place.”

“I saw him, Mother.”

“No, you saw his body.”

He pulled his hands from hers. This time, she let him.

“When I gave him my wand during the battle, he looked at me.” Draco lowered his gaze to the floor, not exactly comfortable saying his next words to his mother, “He looked at me the way he did when...I knew that look. If he were something else, how would he have known that? If it wasn’t him, he wouldn’t have sent my wand back.”

“Fine, Draco. Maybe it was him that came back, but if it is, he came back broken.” Narcissa straightened up, all implications of softness gone. “I know darkness. I know dark magic. I know evil. That’s what I felt. When I put my hand on him, that darkness seeped through my fingertips and oozed up my arm like a poison. If you go after Harry, if you find him, that darkness will eat you alive.”

Draco glanced down at the Dark Mark branded on his arm, “Well, I’d know about that already, wouldn’t I? Maybe it won’t hurt so much the second time.”

* * *

 

_August 1998_

Draco started with all the usual methods. He sent owl after owl, but everyone knows you can’t track or follow an owl. He’d asked Harry’s friends, but they had all seemed nearly as desperate to find Harry. He had told no one what his mother said to him. Only once did he feel guilty about leaving out that information. The look of loss and desperation in Ron’s eyes mirrored his own, but he couldn’t bring himself to say it.

“You know,” Ron had said, “I truly believed the whole bloody horcrux thing was going to kill him. Once I found out he went into the forest, I knew he went there for Voldemort to kill him. This is almost worse. I wish I knew if he were okay. I can’t imagine what you’re going through.”

Ron was one of the only people who knew about Draco and Harry. It was almost a relief for someone to know, to understand what Draco lost when Harry went missing. He told Draco about the spells he and Hermione had used trying to find him. They had gone to every place they could think of, everywhere they had been whilst hiding, everywhere they talked about. They never saw even the slightest hint that Harry had been there.

Draco could only thank him, wish him luck, and hope for luck himself.

* * *

 

_April 1999_

Draco was getting very good at unraveling knots of rumors to find the information he needed. It had started with the way Ron said “the horcrux thing.” Draco knew that Harry was searching for and destroying horcruxes. He’d had to find out that Harry himself had been a horcrux on his own.

He’d wandered into places that made Knockturn Alley look like a primary school. He had spoken to people he would have crossed the street to avoid. He had learned things that should make him run as far away from finding Harry Potter as possible.

Draco had never met a necromancer until he found one by accident. He didn’t know they were even real. He only heard she was good with secrets and knowledge that didn’t want to be learnt.

“I was wondering when you’d find your way into my shop,” the woman said.

“I’m sorry, have we met?” Draco asked, though he was sure he would have remembered. She was so genuinely unsettling that he doubted anything short of being obliviated would rid him of the image of this tiny woman with teeth filed to points and eyes that seemed to stare through him. She could barely be seen from where she sat on the opposite side of the counter, but her presence filled the entire shop.

“I’m sure we will eventually. You wear darkness on you. Linked to the dead?”

Draco didn’t answer.

“No harm in it. That link will fade,” she said, pointing to his left forearm.

“It wasn’t my choice.”

“Bonds like that are rarely a choice.”

“If it’s all the same,” Draco said, changing the subject, “I’m here to ask for information. I was told I could find it here.”

“I doubt that. You were likely told you could come here to ask.” She smiled, showing those pointed teeth set on edge.

“I didn’t realize that was such a critical difference.”

She extended her hand and said nothing.

Draco pulled several galleons from his pocket and dropped them into her palm.

“You understand the dead have no use for money.”

“What do you want?”

“How much do you love your mother?”

“She has nothing to do with this,” he said, standing up straighter. “Do you understand? Leave her out of it.”

“Ah,” she said, nodding. “You love her plenty.”

“I do. And if you’re going to—”

“Shut your mouth, boy.”

Draco did.

“I only need to know the value of what I’m asking. Does this information you seek hold more value than the sound of her laughter? I trade in memories, you see.”

“How does this work?”

“One shake of the hand, I’ll have every memory of her laughter from you. She’ll never be the wiser.”

“You don’t even know what I’m asking.”

The necromancer, if that was what she was, grinned at him, enhancing all the deep lines of her ragged face. “You’re looking for Harry Potter.”

“And you can tell me where he is? In exchange for my memories of my mother’s laughter?”

“I can lead you to the information you need to be reunited. But you must want this reunion. You must be near desperate. It will take time. It will take a show of will. You cannot falter or it will be all for naught. Your answers will not come.”

As Draco stood in the dirty little shop, he thought of what it could mean to find Harry. What if he was broken? What if he did come back Dark? Harry had promised to come back for him. After Voldemort was gone, Harry would come back. Draco didn’t care how he came back, only that he came back at all. If there was any of Harry left, he wanted it.

“I’ll do whatever it takes,” he said, extending his hand.

The woman clasped his hand in both of hers. The bony fingers held on tight. Draco felt as though he’d plunged his fist into ice. By the time she let go, a weight had placed itself on Draco’s chest.

“Looks to me that you didn’t know the value of what you had,” she said, grinning widely.

Draco wiped the tears from his cheeks, unsure of how they’d gotten there.

“Where’s Harry?”

She didn’t answer him. The woman dragged herself up from her chair, shuffled over to the far wall and took a small bird from a cage Draco hadn’t noticed. She clutched the small creature in her hand, and held it toward Draco. “Tell the little birdy what you need. Say it clearly now.”

“I need to find Harry Potter,” he said, looking at the woman.

“Tell the sweet little birdy.” She held the bird closer to him.

A sick feeling crept over Draco, but he did as he was told. “I want to find Harry Potter,” he repeated, looking at the bird.

As he spoke the words, she tightened her grip. The small scream that came from the animal caused him to gasp, eyes filling with tears again. He watched in horror as she squeezed the life from the little thing and dropped it unceremoniously onto the countertop.

She took a piece of chalk out of her apron pocket and drew a circle and set of runes around its little body, muttering all the while in a language Draco didn’t recognize. She tucked the chalk back into the apron and brought her dust covered fingertip to her mouth. The woman bit down with her sharpened teeth until blood welled at the puncture.

Drops of blood splattered onto the feathers as she repeatedly drew a rune in the air above the bird. The shop filled with the smell of ash and smoke and the bird shook violently. Wings extended and folded, feathers ruffled, and the bird stood upon the countertop.

The necromancer had not brought the poor little thing back to life; it was dead where it stood. “No chance of getting to where she needed to be while still alive.”

“He’s dead?” The words fell from Draco’s lips, feeling like they’d cut him on the way out.

“Who can say? Your little friend will take your message to the one who will help you. The mother always helps. There is always a cost. She will come to you when she knows you mean it. You will go to a body of water, any body will do, and under the new moon or the full moon, she will come to you at sunset.”

“So it doesn’t matter if it’s full or new?”

“She will choose. You must wait at the water on every new moon, every full moon, until she decides to appear. You have faith she will come, yes?”

Draco tore his eyes away from the monstrosity on the countertop, despite the fact it still stared back at him, “I take it my faith in her arrival is required?”

The necromancer nodded.

“Then yes. I’ll wait. I’ll keep looking for him, but I will wait for her as well.”

She nodded her approval. “Break the chalk line, boy. Your little friend is eager to be off.”

He stepped close enough to drag his finger through the chalk line. He tried not to flinch when the bird followed his movements with its dead eyes. Once the line was broken, the bird extended its wings, launched itself upwards and burst into flames. In no more than a second, only a short trail of ash proved it had been there at all.

“And so,” the woman said, “you wait. Now get out of my shop.”

Draco did not need to be told twice. He forced himself not to run, but he was at the shop door before the words left her mouth. When he made it out onto the street, the woman behind him laughed. For a moment, he thought he recognized the sound, until he reassured himself that was simply not possible.

* * *

 

_July 1997_

The held each other. In that muggle pub, in front of untouched food, they held each other. Draco didn’t want to break their silence. He knew that when he did, Harry would be gone.

“I haven’t told the others,” Harry said.

Draco nodded.

“When I leave here, I’m going back to the Burrow. I’ll get my things, and go. I can’t let anyone else get hurt. If I told them, they’d never let me go alone. Dumbledore wanted me to find the horcruxes, so that is what I am going to do.” Harry tightened his hold around Draco’s waist, pulling him closer to his side. “I don’t know what else to do.”

“You’re coming back,” _to me_ , Draco wasn’t brave enough to say the last bit out loud. He knew Harry understood.

“Yes. I’m coming back. Draco, I’m coming back.”

Draco looked down to where his hand rested on Harry’s thigh. He thought of how it might feel when this could be a normal, everyday occurrence. When the war was over, when Draco was free and when Harry wasn’t being hunted, they could have a life. Any kind of life would do, so long as they were together.

“I love you, Draco.”

He turned to look at Harry. He could stare into his eyes forever. Damn he was beautiful. So beautiful. He leaned in until his lip’s brushed Harry’s. Harry kissed him sweetly. Draco could feel him smile.

“I love you, too, Potter,” he answered.

Harry laughed. “I promise, Draco. I’m coming back for you. We’ll both be done with this rubbish with wars and blood and houses and expectations. I just want you. When I come back, I think I’ll have earned that much, yeah?”

Draco nodded, not trusting his voice to remain steady.

“Promise me you’ll wait,” Harry whispered.

“Forever if I have to.”

“Hopefully it won’t take quite so long.”

“Hey, Potter.” Draco took Harry’s hand. “Happy birthday.”

* * *

 

_June 2000_

“Draco, you stupid fucking—” Pansy hit him with her umbrella, “You got ripped off! That bitch stole your gold, stole your memories of Merlin knows what, and now you’re going to catch bloody pneumonia.”

His Impervious charms weren’t holding against the downpour. That much was true, but one charmed umbrella wasn’t likely to do as much good as Pansy would hope. “I have to be here. At least until after sunset. What if this is the one time she comes?”

“HARRY IS GONE.”

Draco could hex her. Curse her. She was the last to give up on him, but she gave up all the same.

“He’s gone, love. Please. You’ll drive yourself mad with this rubbish. You can’t keep doing this. Hope is killing you. This fucking storm will kill you faster,” Pansy shouted. The entire sky seemed to be falling, crashing against the earth, roaring against the lake stretched before them. She could be right, but Draco felt that he’d die if he failed.

“Go home, Pansy.”

“Draco Malfoy, come with me. Now. Or you’re dead to me. I will not watch you do this to yourself any longer. I’ve been sitting by while you’ve been doing this for so fucking long. I thought you needed it. That it was like grieving or therapy or something, but you’re not you.”

“That toothy bitch, as you so love to call her, told me it would take time. I’m giving it time.”

Pansy’s tears were invisible in the rain, her sobs barely audible over the storm, her heartbreak was louder than a thunderclap. “I’m going home now, Draco. I’ll leave you alone. You can stay, but please. Please Draco. Can this be the last time?”

“That’s not up to me.”

She dropped the umbrella to the ground. She hugged her arms tightly around herself. She cried. She cried the way she did when they were still tiny children, when her favorite canary died.

Draco flinched, the crack of her disapparation punctuating the end of something. Not their friendship, but something. He doubted they’d ever really be the same after this. She wasn’t one to beg and cry, but he wasn’t one to give up. He was going to wait. Forever if he had to, because waiting meant _Harry_.

“Hello, sweet one. All alone?”

Draco spun on his heel, coming face to face with a woman. Even looking at her, he couldn’t describe her in any great detail. She was tall if she was eye to eye with him, but he couldn’t hold anything else in his mind. He only knew she was beautiful. Didn’t he?

“It doesn’t seem so,” Draco answered.

“You’re funny. I like you. You knew I would be here.”

He nodded. “Eventually.”

“Good boy. Follow.”

She led away from the water’s edge to a door at the treeline. They both stepped inside. It was barely big enough to be called a cottage and every surface looked like a work surface.

“You can help me find Harry.” He didn’t ask. He was told to have faith, and that’s what he did.

“I can, and I will.”

“Who are you? How do you know where to find him.”

“I’m his mother,” she said with a grin spreading across her face.

“Lily?”

“Close enough.”

“You don’t look like Lily,” he said, looking at her cloud of dark hair.

“And you don’t look any closer to finding the love of your life,” she said without meeting Draco’s eyes.

“I’m sorry. I only meant…” Draco was unsure of how to continue without offending her. “You’re not Lily Potter.”

“No.”

Until she reached for it, he didn’t see the bird. It had to be the same one. He hoped it was the same one. Otherwise, the knowledge of being in the presence of more than a single zombie bird in the course of his life would be a most unwelcome revelation.

The bird plucked a feather from its own tail and held it aloft for Lily.

She took the feather and looked at Draco. “Are you right handed?”

“Left.”

She grabbed his left hand and used the feather as a quill against his palm. She drew without ink, a faint glow settling on his skin where the feather traced along.

“I don’t recognize those runes,” he said.

“You wouldn’t. It’s a sigil of my House. It’s what you came for.” She finished the sigil and placed the feather in his hand.

“You will return to London. You must be outdoors anywhere in the city. Hold the feather as you are now, and wish for his presence. When the feather floats away, he will come. When he does, you must speak his full name and press the sigil,” she said, pointing to his hand, “against his bare skin. Even if he doesn’t stay, he will come back. You will have the reunion you wish for.”

He nodded. “Nothing is for free.”

“Do you understand? Wish for him. He will come. Once he’s there, say his name, touch his skin, the sigil will create a link. You will always be able to find him. The two of you will always be together in one way or another.”

“What do you want in exchange for this?” he asked.

Lily smiled. “Nothing dear. Just promise me that you’ll do this thing you’ve asked me to help you with.”

“Nothing is for free,” he repeated.

“I can’t leave here. I can only wander on the very rare and special occasions, so promise me that you’ll keep me in your heart when you leave from here.”

Draco weighed his options quickly. Reasoning that she was likely indebting him to her, he agreed. A favor to some otherworldly being was not the worst situation he’d gotten dragged into. This time, at least, it was his choice.

“I agree to these terms,” Draco said. “I promise to use the wish and the sigil to find Harry and activate the link. Additionally, I promise to keep you in my heart in exchange for the wish and sigil themselves.”

 

Draco stepped back through the door at the edge of the woods. The rain had stopped and it looked oddly clear. He apparated home, casting a few drying and cleaning charms before doing so to spare himself having to clean his floors more than absolutely necessary.

The crack of his apparition hadn’t stopped ringing in his ears before he heard what was likely a fist pounding on his door. Still uneasy from his visit with Lily, he almost didn’t answer.

Almost.

When he unlocked the door, his visitor shoved the door open without invitation. Pansy threw herself into his arms.

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry, Draco. I didn’t mean it. You’ll never be dead to me. I’m sorry,” she sobbed.

He pushed her back an arm’s length. “It’s fine.”

Her lip trembled until she bit down on it. She sniffed, trying to stop herself from crying more.

Draco had never seen this from Pansy before, and they’d been through hell and back.

“You’re still that mad at me,” she whispered.

“It’s been a rough night for us. I’m allowed to be mad for a couple hours, aren’t I?”

“But then to avoid me for weeks?”

“I’m not going to avoid you. I opened my door. Here you are,” he said, gesturing to her.

Hurt turned to worry in her eyes. “Draco. Where have you been?”

“I told you where I went. I told you when I started waiting for...her.”

“Draco, darling, I need you to tell me something that is going to sound really stupid. Humour me. How long ago were we at the lake together?”

“Since you asked nicely,” he said, glancing down at his watch, “about an hour ago.”

“She came.”

“Yeah, how did you know?” The familiar weight of worry settled in around him.

“Draco. I haven’t seen you in over three weeks.”

He sighed. He hated being surprised. Nothing in his search from Harry should’ve surprised him at this point, but it still did. He guessed it was just one of those days. “This might as well happen.”

“What are—? Wha—” she stuttered. “How are you okay with this? You understand what this means. Right? If you did see a woman, if you went anywhere with her, you left this world. She was probably a Fae. What if she’d been a demon?”

“She could have been either,” Draco admitted. “I don’t care, though. She could have been the love child of the Bloody Baron and the Whomping Willow and I still would have gone with her.”

“Why?”

“I can find him now,” Draco said. “I can find Harry.”

* * *

 

_6 August  2000_

Draco forced himself to slow his breathing. He wouldn’t hurt him, right? It was still Harry. Draco had know this was a possibility. His mother had warned him. Pansy warned him. Even Harry. Even his own fears had warned him. Harry was different. Draco wasn’t sure he could have been prepared for _how_ different.

Upon his first look at Harry standing there in his living room, he’d thought of Voldemort: worn down and mottled with the snake to which he’d attached his soul. But that was different. Voldemort had withered into the abomination he was near the end. Harry looked as though he’d _become_. He was something intended.

Those brilliant green eyes, though cold and serpentine, were still Harry’s. The long, tapered teeth Draco refused to call fangs sat in a neat row behind the same lips Draco had kissed time and again. His hands were now tipped in claw-like fingernails.

Fear rose in Draco’s throat like bile, threatening to spill from him if only he’d open his mouth.

“Please, Draco, my love. Say no. No. Please, say no, because I have to ask.” Harry gripped Draco’s arms between shoulder and elbow. “Are you mine?”

Draco realised, looking up at him, that Harry was much taller than last he’d seen him. His arms too long, legs too long, features too sharp. He was terrified. Draco was scared of Harry, but he knew that they’d promised each other forever. He knew if this was Harry, no matter what he’d become, Harry would never hurt him.

Draco nodded.

“I need a word, Draco. I need that word to be ‘no’. You can still walk away. Are you mine?” Harry asked again.

Draco took a steadying breath.

Harry took Draco’s face in his monstrous hands. He said something else, words in parseltongue that Draco didn’t understand.

“Yes.”

Pain laced itself across Harry’s face. “I’m so sorry. I tried.”

“I don’t understand.”

“I know,” Harry said. “That’s why I stayed away. I tried to keep you safe.”

“What…” Draco tried to ask ‘ _what are you talking about’_ or _‘what happened to you’_ , instead, he asked, “What are you?”

Still holding Draco’s face, Harry brushed his thumbs over Draco’s cheeks. “I died. I came back, but it cost me my humanity.”

Draco closed his eyes, courage taking place of his sight. “You’re not a naga or a gorgon. You’re something different?”

“Something brand new, she said.”

“She?”

“Lillith. Mother of Demons. ‘My new mother’, she called herself.”

“Lily.” Draco scoffed. “She let me call her Lily.”

Harry scoffed. “What a bitch.”

Draco laughed. For a moment, he was with his Harry, the Harry he already knew. Not this snake demon holding him.

“Remember that I love you. And I’m sorry. I really did try to keep this from happening.”

Draco shook in fear, closed eyes no longer shielding him from the truth of the situation.

“Open your eyes love, you’re mine now.”

Draco opened his eyes. The air left his lungs in a pathetic whimper. Harry’s skin was gray-green and his eyes had the same slitted pupils of a viper. He wanted to scream. He wanted to run. He had seen dozens of beasts and creatures in his life, but not until now had he ever really seen a monster. And though Harry was a monster, a demon, fuck he was beautiful.

Those viper eyes kept Draco frozen in place. He watched those lips move over the fangs in Harry’s mouth. Even his English sounded like Parseltongue now.

“Kiss me, my love.”

The thought of kissing Harry like this turned his blood to ice, but that didn’t stop Harry.

Harry’s lips burned like acid. At the corner of Draco’s mouth, then his bottom lip, pain blossomed. A strangled cry tore through him. Poison? No. Venom. Vipers had venom. Harry could kill him.

Harry crushed a kiss against Draco’s lips. Pain burned through him, spreading from his lips to the rest of his face. Fire flowed through his blood until Draco thought he couldn’t stand a second more.

Then it stopped.

Draco felt high on Harry’s touch. He grabbed at Harry’s rough skin, pulling their bodies together feeling small against him for the first time. He needed Harry to touch him. Needed those hands everywhere.

The once needle-thin slits in Harry’s eyes were blown wide with lust and power. “Still mine?”

“Yes. Fuck yes. Harry please,” Draco whimpered as Harry tore the clothes from his body. Pale skin showed off angry red lines where claws met flesh. Draco moaned at every touch.

“I need you, Draco.”

The words reached through Draco’s venom addled mind and awakened a need within him. He needed Harry like never before. He didn’t need the love and care he usually got from him. He didn’t need the affection. He didn’t need Harry’s patience. He needed Harry to claim him.

Draco followed Harry’s movements from one moment into the next, finding himself pinned to the floor under Harry’s naked body. Nothing was quite human anymore. Not Harry’s eyes, his body, certainly not his cock. It should have scared him. Might have disgusted him in another situation, but now, he ached to be filled. He wanted it. Wanted another kissful of poison to fill his head with the haze that had his cock throbbing and his skin on fire waiting to be ravaged.

Harry hissed words against Draco’s neck, promises of what was to come, if Draco had to guess by the tone, the feel of the words rolling across his skin.

He thrust his hips upward almost unintentionally. Draco whimpered, straining to sit up wanting to taste Harry’s lips again. A clawed hand pressed hard against the middle of his chest, preventing him from reaching Harry, but nothing could stop him from trying.

_Still mine?_

Draco understood the words Harry hissed against his lips. “Yes. I’m yours. You’re mine. We promised. I never stopped looking for you, never. I never gave up, you’re mine. Make me yours.”

Draco tasted blood as Harry kissed him hard. Fangs breaking skin, Draco unsure of whose skin, not caring either way. Venom coursing through them both. Need taking over, magic pouring out of Harry’s gray-green skin. Draco drinking him in like it would save them both. Maybe it would.

Harry licked a stripe down Draco’s neck. Heat bloomed at the touch. Draco’s body accepting the pain as a gift, moans filling empty space around them.

The claws on Draco’s chest lifted. Roughly shoved into the carpet, facedown, Draco cried out as Harry’s hungry mouth devoured him, one kiss, one bite, one swipe of his tongue at a time. Harry worked his tongue over the tight heat of Draco’s body, loosening him, teasing and torturing him.

Draco shook with need, with something that should be pain, and with relief when he felt the wet head of Harry’s cock press against his rim. He didn’t know if it was lube or something else, but didn’t care. He needed Harry inside him. He tried to buck back against Harry and was rewarded with the same clawed hand pressing him into the carpet.

_Don’t move. It will hurt if you do._

“Then fuck me.”

Harry slid inside him. Draco screamed. The same venomous burn poured into his body filling him completely until it could settle into his nerves, his blood, and replace itself with liquid ecstasy. He knew the inhuman cock fucking into him could ruin him. Thick and ridged and completely filling him, thrust after thrust, it was perfect.

He cried out with every thrust until Harry shoved his fingers into Draco’s mouth. The sensation of being fucked into the carpet, gagging on his demon’s clawed fingers, and the haze of poison filling his blood threw Draco into the most intense orgasm he’d ever had despite his cock being pinned between his own body and the floor. He cried out around Harry’s fingers; his vision blackened. Draco’s body was so spent that he couldn’t even speak or whimper as Harry pounded deeply into him, more roughly than anything Draco had experienced in his life.

Harry’s cock seemed to swell. He tried to pull out for another deep thrust and caught. Every nerve in Draco’s body screamed in protest.

 _Fucking barbs,_ Harry cursed, and shoved his cock deeply into Draco.

Fear and understanding were swallowed up by the pain, until Harry groaned and panted spilling into Draco. Again, the acid burn of the poison took hold of Draco’s body as Harry’s come filled him.

Fangs sank deep into Draco’s skin, and every ache and burn soared into euphoria.

_It’s okay. I’ve got you. I’ll fix it. You’ll feel so good._

Draco understood every word, as fangs sank into his shoulder and again at the base of his neck. Their bodies were tied together by whatever the fuck happened with Harry’s cock, and Draco was perfectly content to belong right where he was. Thoroughly used and claimed, with his demon’s cock buried in his arse, gagging on his fingers, he was tipped over the edge into another climax.

Harry crooned approvingly with his face nestled in Draco’s neck. Minutes stretched by until Draco wasn’t being pinned but being held. Harry’s warm brown skin soft against Draco as he whispered loving words to him. Harry slipped his cock from Draco’s arse causing no more pain.

Once they each found themselves in the other’s arms, Harry asked again. “Are you still mine, Draco?” It was his voice again.

“Yes,” Draco managed to say.

“I accept.” Harry whispered, unable to hide the sound of the tears quickly building. “As you are bound to me, I bind myself to you.”

The sigils on Draco’s palm glowed brightly before fading down.

“She gave me a soulbind.”

Harry nodded. “Very few guarantees with the Mother of Demons. One is that she’s a liar. She never meant to help you find me. She wanted—”

“I’ll end up like you, won’t I?” Draco interrupted.

“Maybe with subtle differences. You soul will change to imitate mine. And I’ll be here for every bit of it. I’ll be here when you start to regret it, when you start to hate me for it. Only she can break it, and her prices are always much higher than the cost of what you’re asking.”

“If I’ve learned anything, it’s that you’re still Harry. Demon or not, you’re you. I chose you a long time ago, Harry.”

“But you’ll change too,” He argued.

“If you’re still you, then I’ll still be me.”

“You’ll lose everything and everyone. Becoming a demon isn’t like being sorted into a new Hogwarts house. This is much more than—”

“I’ll still have you.”

“You’re going to die.”

Much of the haze still settled in Draco’s mind cleared. “I’ll die? From this?” he asked, indicating all the puncture wounds left by Harry’s fangs.

“Not from this. But the deal you made with her? It’s killing you already. She’s eating your heart from the inside. You will come back, though. You’ll be like me.”

“We always knew being together wouldn’t be easy.”

Harry tightened his hold on Draco. “This isn’t a joke.”

“Am I laughing?”

* * *

 

_8 August 2000_

Draco checked the charms once more, making sure the worst of the bruising and other injuries were covered. It had taken Harry days to convince Draco to say goodbye to his mother while he was still human. Even as a human, he didn’t want her to seem him like this.

He didn’t hear her come into the room. She’d learned to move through the manor like a ghost when it was a necessity. Perhaps habits like that are hard to unlearn.

“My son.”

He turned to face her, surprised to find that he wasn’t alone.

“What are you doing here Pansy?”

“Cissa told me you were coming. I had to see you again. This is goodbye isn’t it?” she asked.

Draco looked to his mother, not wanting to start their last conversation quite like this.

“It’s okay to tell the truth, my son. I’ve known for a very long time that you would never let that boy go. I know you’re about to follow him into the darkness that has claimed him. I watched my husband destroy himself. I will not watch you do the same.”

“Mother,” he started.

“No. No, my darling boy. Don’t offer me pretty lies. I’ll lie to myself. I’m going to leave this room and tell myself my son is running away to find a greater happiness than he could find here.”

“Why can’t you believe that is the truth?” he asked.

“Mutual obsession is not happiness. But if you never bother to learn that, who am I to tell you that you are not happy?” Narcissa stepped forward and embraced her son for the last time.

Even her light touches made Draco feel as though he were being crushed. His body was not going to last much longer. The demon eating his heart was making sure of that.

“I love you, Draco. I couldn’t have asked for a better son,” she said, then left him with Pansy.

Before Draco could think of a single suitable thing to say, she was gone. Pansy reached up and tilted his face toward the light.

“What happened to you.”

“I’m fine.”

Pansy sighed, “I taught you every cosmetic spell you know. I’d know you’re hiding something even if we were in the dark and I were blindfolded facing the opposite direction.”

“Well, I guess you should have taught me better spells then, yeah?” he said, trying to tease.

“Let me see.”

Draco sighed and looked away from her.

“Lift some of them, or I’ll remove all the charms,” she threatened. “Your choice.”

Draco knew she could do it, and didn’t want her to see the black lines tracing the poisons through his skin or all the scars from Harry’s fangs tearing through his skin. He lifted the charms that hid his bloodshot eyes and bruised face.

Pansy took a slow, shaking breath. “I’ll never see you again, will I?”

“I’ve been warned that it’s easier to stay away.”

“Harry is taking you away from everything,” she said.

“Not everything. I have him. He’s everything I wanted, and I have a chance to be happy,” he said. He wrapped her hand with his, moving her fingers away from his face. He looked down at her polished nails, the tiny silver rings she wore on her thumbs, and the desperate way her hand gripped his.

“You could have been happy with me.” The sadness in her voice brought his attention back to her face. “Would it really have been so impossible to fall in love with me?”

“Not at all. In another life, we would have been together until the end of time. You’re amazing. You’re the best friend I could have ever wished for. My heart made a choice.”

She smiled. It didn’t reach her eyes. “Your heart chose Harry. In life, in death, in everything else, you’re going to follow him.”

Draco nodded.

“I don’t think I can see you like that,” she said. “But if I ever change my mind a very long time from now, would you still see me?”

“We’ll deal with that when we come to it. Goodbye, Pansy. Be good, you dodgy brat.”

She sobbed, laughing through her own emotional turmoil, “Not likely, bogey-face.”

He embraced her one last time and walked out of the life he knew.

* * *

 

_9 August 2000_

Draco’s body shook beyond his control. “Fucking kill me, I’ll be right back. I can’t do this anymore, Harry, please.”

“It won’t be long. It’s okay,” he said, running his fingers through Draco’s hair.

“It hurts. I want to die.”

“Soon, love. It won’t be long.” Harry took Draco’s hand as gently as he could.

Even the slightest touches hurt. Draco’s fingertips were cracked and bleeding. His veins looked like liquid onyx beneath his pale skin. Breathing felt like inhaling boiling water. Nothing held a candle to the pain radiating from his heart. If someone told him Lilith herself was clawing her way out of his chest, he would believe it.

“I know it hurts. That’s her price. But it will be over soon,” Harry said, doing his best to soothe Draco. “Relax, love.”

Harry’s fingers trailed from the tips of Draco’s hair, down his neck and settled at his throat. He looked into Draco’s eyes and said, “It’s okay.”

The pressure on his throat didn’t register as a threat until Draco begged for help. The words were cut off as Harry’s hand tightened. Panic seized him as an automatic reaction but his body was so resigned to death that he didn’t bother to fight back. He watched Harry’s calm face as the world blackened at the edges and fell away altogether.

 

Draco stood in Diagon Alley. There were no people, no owls, no sounds, no colors. He stood in the middle of the street knowing he could walk to any shop and the door would open. A single window seemed brighter than the others.

Madam Malkin’s robe shop was as empty and silent as all the others, but he could feel it. That was the door he should walk through. He would find his way if only he could go inside. He took one step toward the shop, then another, and another.

He reached for the door handle when the weight of someone's hand fell upon his shoulder. At the touch, all his pain faded. The bloodstains, the scars, the bruises all faded. He was whole again.

“You’re going back.”

Draco whipped around to find Lily, Lilith, standing there. He could see her properly now. Her long black hair framed a face that was not quite human. Her eyes were too big, neck too long, limbs too willowy, smile too sharp.

“I belong in there,” Draco said, pointing to the door.

“Maybe once upon a time, that were true. But you don’t have that choice now. We made a deal. You’re going back.”

Draco could feel something from the door. Warmth. A feeling of belonging, of _home_. Draco was dead and needed to move on. Vinny would be there. His father. Everyone he lost would be there, and all he had to do was open the door.

“I have to go,” Draco said, feeling the overwhelming drive to move on.

“Harry is waiting for you,” she said, “and you are testing my patience.”

The mention of Harry brought his awareness back to the situation at hand. He wasn’t permitted to move on. He had been bound to a demon. Lilith was sending him back to become a demon himself.

“Harry?” He asked stupidly.

“There’s a good boy. Let’s go.”

He reached out and took her long-fingered hand, and the world came rushing back to him.

 

“Feeling better?” Harry asked.

Draco wasn’t sure what he was feeling. He felt...empty, but alive. So very alive. He felt that he could burn the world to the ground and bask in its warmth. “I’m alive.”

Harry pulled Draco into his arms. His body didn’t protest with the agony that had plagued him for days. Lilith had healed him. Not only healed, but restored. None of the marks remained. Harry’s touch no longer hurt. His kisses no longer burned; the venom of his kiss no longer ravaging his nerve endings.

“Good, now come here. I want to make you mine,” Harry said against his mouth.

Draco couldn’t have refused in exchange for all the stars in the sky. He truly was bound to Harry, belonging to him in every way.

 _I’m already yours._ Hearing Parseltongue from his own mouth, Draco settled into his new reality.

Despite being bound to Harry, he knew that they were both Lilith’s pawns. They both owed their life to her. Harry and Draco only had life because she allowed it. Draco was okay with it. Any kind of life would do, so long as they were together.

**Author's Note:**

> Much love to the mods and all the other participants in the My Bloody Valentine mini-fest. Such a pleasure to share this experience with you.


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